Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 12, 2026

A High-Resolution, Single-Grain, In Vivo Pollen Hydration Bioassay for Arabidopsis thaliana
Published on: June 30, 2023
Natural genetic variation in selected populations of Arabidopsis thaliana is associated with ionomic differences
Elizabeth Buescher1, Tilman Achberger, Idris Amusan
1Department of Agronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America.
Abstract:
Controlling elemental composition is critical for plant growth and development as well as the nutrition of humans who utilize plants for food. Uncovering the genetic architecture underlying mineral ion homeostasis in plants is a critical first step towards understanding the biochemical networks that regulate a plant's elemental composition (ionome). Natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana provide a rich source of genetic diversity that leads to phenotypic differences. We analyzed the concentrations of 17 different elements in 12 A. thaliana accessions and three recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations grown in several different environments using high-throughput inductively coupled plasma- mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS). Significant differences were detected between the accessions for most elements and we identified over a hundred QTLs for elemental accumulation in the RIL populations. Altering the environment the plants were grown in had a strong effect on the correlations between different elements and the QTLs controlling elemental accumulation. All ionomic data presented is publicly available at www.ionomicshub.org.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Genetic Variation
Genes exist in different versions called alleles, which...
Genetics of Speciation
Frequency-dependent Selection
Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift
Tonicity in Plants
Tonicity
Tonicity describes the capacity of a cell to lose or gain water depending on the solute...
Responses to Salt Stress

